“I don’t know.”
He forced a smile. “I’ll let you know when I get there.”
“Some medication is on the way. Can I do anything to make you more comfortable?”
“Yeah. Come back and talk to me tonight.”
It was Paige’s night off, and she was exhausted. “I’ll come back.”
That night when Paige went back to see John Cronin, he was awake.
“How are you feeling?”
He winced. “Terrible. I was never very good about pain. I guess I’ve got a low threshold.”
“I understand.”
‘You met Hazel, huh?”
“Hazel?”
“My wife. The bimbo. She and her brothers were here to see me. They said they talked to you.”
“Yes.”
“She’s something, ain’t she? I sure got myself into a bundle of trouble there. They can’t wait for me to kick the bucket.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true. The only reason Hazel married me was for my money. To tell you the truth, I didn’t mind that so much. I really had a good time with her in bed, but then she and her brothers started to get greedy. They always wanted more.”
The two of them sat there in a comfortable silence.
“Did I tell you I used to travel a lot?”
“No.”
“Yeah. I’ve been to Sweden…Denmark…Germany. Have you been to Europe?”
She thought about the day at the travel agency. Let’s go to Venice! No, let’s go to Paris! How about London? “No. I haven’t.”
“You ought to go.”
“Maybe one day I will.”
“I guess you don’t make much money working at a hospital like this, huh?”
“I make enough.”
He nodded to himself. “Yeah. You have to go to Europe. Do me a favor. Go to Paris…stay at the Crillon, have dinner at Maxim’s, order a big, thick steak and a bottle of champagne, and when you eat that steak and drink that champagne, I want you to think of me. Will you do that?”
Paige said slowly, “I’ll do that one day.”
John Cronin was studying her. “Good. I’m tired now. Will you come back tomorrow and talk to me again?”
“Ill come back,” Paige said.
John Cronin slept.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Ken Mallory was a great believer in Lady Luck, and after meeting the Harrisons, he believed even more firmly that she was on his side. The odds against a man as wealthy as Alex Harrison being brought to Embarcadero County Hospital were enormous. And I’m the one who saved his life, and he wants to show his gratitude, Mallory thought gleefully.
He had asked a friend of his about the Harrisons.
“Rich doesn’t even begin to cover it,” his friend had said. “He’s a millionaire a dozen times over. And he has a great-looking daughter. She’s been married three or four times. The last time to a count.”
“Have you ever met the Harrisons?”
“No. They don’t mingle with the hoi polloi.”
On a Saturday morning, as Alex Harrison was being discharged from the hospital, he said, “Ken, do you think I’ll be in shape to give a dinner party a week from now?”
Mallory nodded. “If you don’t overdo it, I don’t see why not.”
Alex Harrison smiled. “Fine. You’re the guest of honor.”
Mallory felt a sudden thrill. The old man really meant what he said. “Well…thank you.”
“Lauren and I will expect you at seven-thirty next Saturday night.” He gave Mallory an address on Nob Hill.
“I’ll be there,” Mallory said. Will I ever!
Mallory had promised to take Kat to the theater that evening, but it would be easy to cancel. He had collected his winnings, and he enjoyed having sex with her. Several times a week they had managed to get together in one of the empty on-call rooms, or a deserted hospital room, or at her apartment or his. Her fires were banked a long time, Mallory thought happily, but when the explosion came—wow! Well, one of these days, it will be time to say arrivederci.
On the day he was to have dinner with the Harrisons, Mallory telephoned Kat. “Bad news, baby.”
“What’s the matter, darling?”
“One of the doctors is sick and they’ve asked me to cover for him. I’m afraid I’m going to have to break our date.”